The present invention relates to a converter-type electronic circuit connector applicable to transferrable communication links between a computer and its peripheral equipment.
Presently, for communicating with external storage devices such as hard disk drives, tape drives, CD ROM drives, etc., there are two types of controllers for external links in a computer system.
(1) According to a first type, the controller circuit of a particular drive is installed within the computer system with an additional connection and cable providing a link to the drive itself.
(2) According to the second type, the additional storage device control circuit board is instead affixed to the connection for the expansion slots inside the computer system. When it is desired to install an additional one, the operator must open the housing of the computer to add the addition circuit board.
For the above two conventional types, because the hardware jumper configuration in the computer is different from that in the peripheral equipment's storage device, the user must always adjust the jumper configuration of the hardware when the computer is installed or its peripheral equipment is altered. This is a task that is not easily borne the average computer user. Furthermore, it is troublesome for the user to dismantle the computer's housing for insertion of an interface card. In fact, present notebook type computer structures do not permit their housings to be dismantled in order to expand performance. In this regard, the two convention types mentioned above are less than perfect.
In light of the aforementioned defects, engineers in the industry have designed an electronic circuit converter for connecting one or more channels of a storage device through conversion to the standard output port of the computer. FIG. 1 illustrates one such circuit converter A having a connector A1 in one port for input or output and a pair of connectors A2, A3 in the two or more other ports for input and output purposes. The converter A uses many sets of cables with connectors at both ends thereof. One such cable is illustrated in FIG. 2. By varying the connector types in the cable B, the computer C, printer D, several types of storage devices E and F and other peripheral equipment are quickly and easily interconnected. In particular, the connections are made between each machine through the circuit converter A using the cables B. By using such a configuration, there is no need to dismantle the housing of the computer. Despite solving most of the defects or problems associated with an external connection of the computer to a storage device, circuit converters such as the one illustrated in FIG. 1 and other mechanical equipment are dependent upon the cable's connection. In addition, the following defects inherently exists due to the structure of the circuit converter A:
(1) A cable is required having a conversion head between the circuit converter A and the computer's storage device. Accordingly, the user would have to bear the cost of such a cable. In addition, the circuit converter A cannot be plugged directly into the housing of the storage device. Instead, it must be placed together with the dangling extension line on the desk of a user. Besides taking up space on the user's desk, this usually results in a disorderly arrangement. Furthermore, the core wire in the cable is usually twisted in strands. Such twisting of wire not only creates an unstable change in line capacitance, but also it produces signal interference. Making a circuit to compensate for this signal interference is usually too difficult. The accuracy of the data stored via a circuit converter A is therefore frequently suspected and doubted. In addition, there are many electrical contact points and a long transmission distance which adversely affect the efficiency of signal transmission.
(2) Inside the converter A, there is a single way converter circuit board using an iron panel to fix the connection of the circuit board with the wire. This kind of structure is limited since the physical area of the single way circuit board is limited. As a result, the design of circuit's functionality is restricted. In addition, although there is ample space within the converter, such space is not being fully utilized and is therefore being wasted.